Game 11: Hit And Stun

The Blue Jackets traded chances and, eventually, seven goals with the Anaheim Ducks today in front of a sparse and unusually tame crowd in Nationwide Arena.

The Jackets started fast but faded, particularly at the starts of the second and third periods. They allowed quick goals in each, enabling the Ducks to tie (1-1, 19 seconds into the first) and take a lead (3-2, at 1:51 of the third). The Jackets got two goals from Artem Anisimov, but Corey Perry got the late winner in a 4-3 Ducks win. It snapped a three-game Jackets winning streak and put them once more on the wrong side of .500 (5-6).

In the closing minutes of regulation, with the score tied 3-3, Jackets center Ryan Johansen tried to rim the puck around the end boards, but took too sharp an angle off his backhand, sending the puck off Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and into the slot.

There waiting was perhaps that last player on the Ducks roster Columbus would pick in that situation – Perry.

Perry, showing the patience of an elite scorer, waited out Bobrovsky and fired home the game-winner with only 2:25 left in regulation.

“The last one, when the puck bounces out like that and you’re seeing No. 10 with the puck on his stick I think there is desperation from everywhere,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “You can’t look at that and say he should have reacted differently. You have to make a quick decision on how you want to play it.”

But like so many games already this season in a stronger, faster and more brutal NHL, this one will be best remembered for a hard hit and its consequences.

Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky was given a five-minute interference major and a game misconduct for an open-ice hit on Ducks forward Saku Koivu with 35 seconds remaining in the second period.

Koivu carried the puck into the Jackets’ zone and had just passed it when Dubinsky stepped into him at the blue line. Dubinsky did not leave his skates or appear to target Koivu’s head, but his right shoulder glanced off Koivu’s raised stick before smacking his head.

Koivu was “knocked out,” according to Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau, but “looked like he was OK” after the game.”

“I didn’t agree with the call,” Dubinsky said. “But the refs see it at game speed and they have to make a call. Obviously I don’t think I’m a dirty player. I don’t think I was trying to target his head.

“I understand the league is trying to crack down on hits to the head, and I don’t think it was one.”

The interference major call was made not by NHL referees Paul Devorski or Brian Pochmara, but by one of the linesmen.

“I was just going to finish my check,” Dubinsky said. “I know (Koivu) moved the puck, but it was less than a second between him moving the puck and when the hit actually happened, so, by definition, I don’t think that’s an interference call.

“My shoulder and my elbow were tucked. It’s a fast game. I’m not a dirty player. I play the game honest. I went out there to try and make a body check, not injure Koivu and make a dirty hit.”

Both coaches declined to comment on the hit itself. When asked shortly after the game’s end, Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said he had not heard from league officials concerning a disciplinary hearing for Dubinsky.

But the incident had a more immediate impact. The Ducks scored on the ensuing power play when Emerson Etem buried the rebound of a shot by Teemu Selanne, giving Anaheim a 3-2 lead at 1:51.

“Probably the biggest thing about that call wasn’t the five minutes (short-handed),” Richards said. “It was that we lost Dubi for the game. You look at the guys out of our lineup – (Derek) MacKenzie and Boone Jenner -- and then we lose Dubi for the third period. Those are guys who provide a lot of speed and energy for us.”

Anisimov tied it at 8:24 when he flicked in a blast by James Wisniewski, but Perry won it with a shot that sailed over Sergei Bobrovsky while the goaltender was flat on his belly in his crease.

“It’s tough to lose on a freaky bounce like that,” Jackets forward Nick Foligno said. “It’s a game you look back on and say we let it slip away. We feel like we should have had that one.”

Jackets forward Blake Comeau opened the scoring with his first goal of the season, hammering a one-timer from Ryan Johansen past Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen (18 saves, 11 in the first period).

Ryan Getzlaf slipped a shot from the right dot through the pads of Bobrovsky 19 seconds into the second to tie it at 1. Peter Holland, recalled from AHL Norfolk this morning, made it 2-1 with a shot from the goal line that somehow slipped inside the near post.

Anisimov tied it at 2 with a short-handed goal at 12:12 of the second. Dubinsky forced a turnover, took off up the ice fed the puck to Anisimov on the break. Anisimov took it from there, switching from backhand to forehand before beating Andersen.

--Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 32 shots. The only one that was truly a “bad” goal was Peter Holland’s at 6:59 of the second period that put the Ducks on top 2-1. Holland was barely above the goal line and way out beneath the faceoff circle when he flipped a puck on goal. It got between Bobrovsky and the post.

--Asked if Bobrovsky is allowing goals now that he perhaps didn’t last season, Richards said: “The second one (Holland’s) is obviously not a good goal. He thought he had everything covered and there was a little hole there. Coming down the stretch, when we needed wins last season, Bob was rock solid. None of those were going in. Right now, for whatever reason, the puck is finding its way in the net.”

--Anisimov’s two-goal game was his second two-goal game with the Blue Jackets. Last time was Feb. 2 vs. Detroit. He has never had a hat trick. The short-handed goal was his first as a Blue Jacket and only the second of his career.

--Anisimov’s short-handed goal was the second scored by the Blue Jackets in as many games. It marked the first time the Jackets had scored short-handed goals in consecutive games since Rick Nash and Derek MacKenzie had one each in losses to Pittsburgh and Detroit on Feb. 26 and 28, 2012. Dubinsky scored the third 3-on-4 shorty in team history on Friday against Toronto.

--Michael Chaput, recalled from Springfield yesterday, made his NHL debut and skated on the fourth line with Ryan Craig and Jared Boll. He had one shot, one hit, one block, won two of five faceoffs and became the sixth Blue Jacket to make his Blue Jackets’ debut this season, joining Jenner, Craig, Ryan Murray, Jack Skille and Curtis McElhinney.

--Anisimov has 3-3-6 in his past six games after scoring twice. Anisimov attempted eight shots, three of which were blocked.

--Dubinsky had won 8 of 9 faceoffs before his departure.

--Wisniewski leads the Jackets with eight assists. He has at least a point in every home game (1-7-8).

--The Blue Jackets are back on the ice at 11 a.m. Monday for practice.

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